The Tax Review report on the retirement income system recommends retaining a means-tested Age Pension, retaining compulsory savings for retirement at 9% and allowing (!) voluntary savings for retirement. It however recommends increasing the age of eligibility for the ‘Age Pension’ pension to 67 years and moving the age of eligibility for superannuation (the ‘preservation age’) gradually toward 67 years also. The report is here.
Increasing the preservation age is a significant change since it would, with currently envisaged changes, increase the preservation age from a minimum of 55 to a minimum of 67 years. Continue reading Access to superannuation & retirement age
Malcolm Turnbull’s budget response was very political. The main practical point was to emphasise retaining the health insurance subsidy and substitute a 3 cent extra tax per cigarette to raise the same income. This is probably sensible in my view but small potatoes. Otherwise the attack was primarily on the size of the $57 billion deficit and the implied debt which he claims will blow out to close to $300b once Labor’s Ruddbank, Broadband and other proposals are included in official debt forecasts. Continue reading Budget 2009 – response by Turnbull
This Budget is based on forecasts that unemployment would have grown considerably without future strong fiscal stimuli but that the economy will, in fact, turn around rapidly in 2011 and then grow at 4.5%. The debt that does stem from the Budget is significant but not overwhelming and probably unavoidable if one accepts the budget premises. The criticism that strong moves were not taken now to reduce the deficit are inconsistent with the premise that a further expansion of the economy now is warranted. Continue reading Budget 2009
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